KOCHI: Khyrunnisa A’s latest offering Chuckle Merry Spin: Us in the US is about the misadventures of an exotic holiday. A former college professor turned writer is travelling to the US with her husband for the graduation ceremony of their daughter-in-law Arpitha. And things ensue. A play on Mark Twain’s celebrated book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the book reads like an entertaining, hilarious, and witty travelogue.
The book, published a few months ago is a relatable laugh-inducing non-fiction where her husband VK also jots down his sojourn in one of the chapters, The Train to Poughkeepsie. The book starts off with travel tips, including Visa processing from the Passport Seva Kendra. “My trip to the US back in 2018 has turned into a travel itinerary to be followed by less tech-savvy persons,” chuckles the award-winning author.
“I never planned to write a travelogue. But being in a completely new place, people and culture, I started scribbling my experiences in my small diary. We stayed in California at VK’s student Abdul Nizzar’s house. He found me scribbling and asked if I had plans for a new book. So I thought, why not. Thus came Chuckle Merry Spin: Us in the US.”
It was her 40-year-old cousin Prithvi who suggested the title of the book. “He also guided us at the American consulate in Chennai,” she adds. “To get an American Visa is a hard task. We have to pass an interview at Chennai consulate. So the book starts off from there to our return,” she says.
“One interesting part was the tech-driven subway journey in New York, a truly frightening experience. So was the tornado in front of my eyes.” Cruising in Boston, creaking houses made of wood, the upside down switches, restrooms with only paper, complicated restaurant etiquette... She narrates every aspect of the forty-day trip.
“Most readers commented that the book provides a sneak-peak on travelling to the US through a common man’s perspective. Luckily I had a tech-savvy daughter-in-law and son to rescue us from that country. I constantly tried to compare the systems in the US, from transportation to the attitude of people, with ours to understand the developments in the two countries,” she says.